A Merry Company at Table
- Artist: Hendrick Pot
- Date: 1630
- Medium: oil on wood
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is "A Merry Company at Table" painted in the Dutch north. Hendrick Pot's work is a great example of the 'Merry Companies' genre, which was very popular in seventeenth-century painting. In this picture, two young women sit on the laps of their clients; the much older woman in the centre runs the business.
Although the men are the paying customers, it is the women who are clearly in charge here. The younger ones both look directly at us with a knowing glance, while the brothel-keeper watches on wryly. The men are either too drunk or distracted to notice who is running the show, or that we are watching them.
The picture also has a more serious undertone. Hendrick Pot seems to be reminding the viewer of the transience of youth and beauty. You can see this contrast between the fresh complexions of the young women and the wrinkled face of the brothel-keeper in the centre. The subtext is that it’s all very well having fun when you are young, but eventually you will have to face up to old age and death.
The painting's date is 1630 and it's made with oil on wood.
See it in person
A Merry Company at Table hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
